May 31, 2007

You may know Arthur Suydam for his brilliant, blood-drenched cover work on the Marvel Zombies comic book series, which featured zombified versions of Spider-Man, Captain America, Wolverine and other Marvel superheroes. But the A-list artist has also delved into making cover art for another zombie venture -- namely the DS rail shooter/survival horror game Touch the Dead. Recently, Arthur took the time to answer some questions about his undead artwork, his favorite zombie flicks, and why he's just so damn awesome...

Let me get this out there now: I am girl who grew up in the '80s. Therefore, I have seen the 1987 movie Dirty Dancingno
less than 58,932,075,207 times. In fact, I've watched it so many times
that the VHS tape actually broke (and was quickly replaced). Why did I
love it? I have no idea. It could've been the mature themes (being an
unwed pregnant woman in the '60s) or just Patrick Swayze's sweet, sweet
abs (but wait, I was six years-old, and hence should not have been
interested in old man stomach muscles. Grody!). Regardless of why I was
compelled to it, I watched the movie over and over again, dancing
around the living room with my sister and cousins as if we were all the
naive, nubile, and nasally-endowed Jennifer Grey (a.k.a. "Baby"). But
alas, as soon as I discovered the true men in my life -- Teenage Mutant
Ninja Turtles, Super Mario Bros. and Metallica -- those days became
gone forever.

I collect a lot of things -- mostly NES games -- but a variety of other systems' games as well, in addition to DVDs, CDs, video game-related toys, some comic books, and so on and so forth. Because of these collections, I have a certain affinity for shelf space. However, as awesome as these DIY Tetris shelves above are, they just aren’t functional enough for today’s modern-day collector. But they're still pretty cool. Find out how to build them yourself (if you’re into that kind of thing).

May 22, 2007

I always thought Lara Croft and Hitman would make a cute couple, but that’s not what we’re talking about here. Famed MTV video games journalist Stephen Totilo is in need of a bit of help putting a gaming twist on his upcoming wedding reception. At the suggestion of his future wife, they have decided to name all their tables after locations in video games. Hit the jump for the list as it stands right now, but they need about six more. Any suggestions are completely welcome.

So we did it. We made it to Seoul, South Korea and back. The last few days we've seen things that most people have never seen or will never see: the city itself, the authentic food, the unveiling of StarCraft 2, and the utter passion that South Koreans have for online gaming and Blizzard games in general. It was an unforgettable experience for us, and to the people of Blizzard and Seoul, we say "kamsa hamneeda!"

Our Korean Air flight back to New York City was delayed by THREE HOURS, for whatever reason. But to make up for it, the airline gave everyone a 10,000 Won ($10) voucher for any restaurant in the terminal. Since there weren't many choices, I went with Burger King, and Pete and Melissa decided to try KFC (what I dubbed Korea Fried Chicken). The food actually wasn't bad; doesn't my Whopper look like how a Whopper should really look? It was also bigger than my face. Conclusion: South Korea is awesome, even when it comes to fast food.

A trip to Korea wouldn't be complete without having kalbi,
a beef dish served as Korean BBQ. So we found a restaurant and ordered
BBQ for four. This is what it looked like, and the plates just kept on
coming! Let's just say we went to our hotel rooms with full bellies
that night...

The StarCraft tournament finals were held in the main auditorium at the Olympic Stadium. The seats were packed with people watching; they yelled and cheered like at any live sporting event. The finals had Ma Jae-Yoon (a.k.a. "sAviOr") playing the Zerg race against Kim Taek-Yong (a.k.a. "Bisu," who we saw earlier today) as the Protoss for best of three. While sAviOr, the top-ranked player, won the first game, Bisu, ranked third overall, came back and creamed him in rounds two and three for an exciting, nail-biting competition. (See the final moments of it here.)

May 20, 2007

We just didn't have the time to stick around for the costume contest, but there were quite a few stragglers walking around. Some were clearly dressed as World of Warcraft characters (the girl above is some sort of hunter); others I had not a clue as to what they were supposed to represent. Either way it was cool to see the enormous effort these fans put into their costumes...